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Missing
John Patrick Kerrigan

Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance

Missing Since: July 20, 1984 from Ronan, Montana

Missing person classification: Endangered Missing

Date of Birth: January 20, 1926
Age at disappearance: 58 years old

Weight and Height: 6'0, 185 pounds

Distinguishing Characteristics: White male. Gray hair, blue eyes.

Details of Disappearance and Psychic Results (login to view) (login to view)

Kerrigan was last seen at a bakery in Ronan, Montana on July 20, 1984; he stopped there on his way home from jogging. A Franciscan priest, he had just been transferred to the Ronan parish two days before to work at Sacred Heart Church. He has never been heard from again.
The day after Kerrigan's disappearance, his clothes were found on Highway 35 near Flathead Lake. His shirt was stained with his blood and there was a $100 bill in the pocket. A bloodstained coat hanger was also present. His brown Chevrolet was found a week later and seven miles away, just outside Polson, Montana; inside the trunk there was a bloodstained shovel, a bloody pillow, and Kerrigan's wallet, which contained over $1,200 in cash. The car's interior and trunk were bloodstained, and the car had been wiped clean of fingerprints. The keys were about 30 yards away.
Another local man,
Curtis Holmen, disappeared from the same general area two days after Kerrigan did, and his vehicle was found abandoned about forty miles from where Kerrigan's car was found. Holmen's brother believes the two cases could be connected in some way, but this theory hasn't been proven.
In August 1982, nearly two years before Kerrigan vanished, another Franciscan priest named Reynaldo Rivera was called away from his rectory in Santa Fe, New Mexico by a man who called himself "Michael Carmello" and asked for a priest to come administer last rites at a rest stop in the town of Waldo. Three days later, his body was found lying in the open in a remote desert area three miles from the rest stop. He had been shot to death and his murder has never been solved. "Carmello" had called the same rectory earlier on the day of Rivera's disappearance with the same request for a priest to come and give the last rites, but the first priest he spoke to was unable to come, so he called back later and got Rivera.
The FBI created a profile of Rivera's killer, theorizing the person was someone who was familiar with the Catholic Church and felt betrayed by it. It's possible more than one perpetrator was involved. One of the officers investigating the murder believed there was a connection between Rivera's murder and Kerrigan's disappearance, but he could find no evidence that the two men knew each other.
Kerrigan was born in Butte, Montana and was ordained a priest in 1954. He served in various communities throughout the state of Montana, including Butte, Hamilton, Walkerville, Dillon, Browning, Bozeman, Drummond, White Sulphur Springs, Choteau, Plains, and lastly, Ronan. In 1983, Kerrigan stayed for three months at a retreat in Jemez Springs, New Mexico; it was designed for priests who are experiencing personal difficulties, including substance abuse, depression and sexual misconduct. After his disappearance, the Catholic Church admitted he'd been to the retreat but wouldn't say exactly why.
In 2011, two separate groups of victims sued the Catholic diocese in Helena, Montana, alleging that between the 1940s and the 1970s, they were sexually abused at the hands of Jesuit priests and Ursuline Sisters at the St. Ignatius Mission and the Ursuline Academy in St. Ignatius, Montana. They implicated twelve priests from western Montana as well as 21 nuns from the St. Ignatius Mission; one of the priests was Kerrigan. Because many of the alleged abusers have since died and because of the statute of limitations, no charges could be brought against anyone. As part of a settlement reached with the victims, however, the Church published a list of the alleged perpetrators in 2015. The lawsuit, which involved hundreds of abuse claims, was settled for $20 million; it drove the diocese into bankruptcy.
Foul play is suspected in Kerrigan's case and he is presumed to have been the victim of a homicide, but it's unclear whether the abuse scandal had anything to do with his disappearance. His case opened 2018 by Psychic Brian Ladd.
Lake County Sheriff's Office
406-883-7301

Since 2006 I have personally worked over 1,000 missing person cases and have
literally spent thousands of hours of my own time trying to help find missing
people, especially missing children...and always for free.

The cases listed here are from my old site, unfortunately, after I got sick, I
lost my site and any backup copies I had, so these are direct links to
archive.org's Wayback Machine. In time I will transfer these old cases to my new
site. I've had a pretty good track record in helping to locate loved ones, and
I'm always willing to help in new cases as well. To view all my past
cases right now please visit
https://briansprediction.com/missingold